Requirements for a battery depend on intended applications for the battery. For example, batteries used in electric drive vehicles need long life cycle, low cost, high gravimetric densities and high volumetric densities sufficient to meet consumer demands. Materials used for construction of such batteries determine ability to meet the requirements desired.
Prior anode materials include carbonaceous particles such as graphite powder. However, density of the graphite powder limits capacity of resulting electrodes employing the graphite powder. Further, undesired reactions with organic electrolytes during discharge can result in fires or explosions.
Other proposed materials may exhibit properties that enable achieving better energy and power densities and safety than the carbonaceous material being replaced. However, various methods for synthesizing these proposed materials rely on techniques, such as solid-state reactions or hydrogen reduction processes, which create problems. In such methods, mixing and milling steps for combining precursors and achieving desired particle sizes for final products contribute to preparation costs associated with the methods and may still result in incomplete reactions and inconsistent particle sizes. Further, need for particular oxidation states of elements within the final products may limit ability in the methods to select the precursor material based on price.
Therefore, a need exists for improved methods of preparing particles, such as lithium vanadium oxide powder suitable for use as anode material for batteries.